


all i want (is love that lasts)

by viridae



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Pining, andrew is very gay and very awkward, winter formal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22221331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viridae/pseuds/viridae
Summary: By the end of the day, everyone knew that Andrew Minyard, local weirdo, had asked Neil Hatford, captain of the varsity Exy team, to the winter formal, and that Neil had said yes.Neil, however, had no clue.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 19
Kudos: 542





	all i want (is love that lasts)

**Author's Note:**

> based on real life! this is unedited and unbeta'd because i just wanted to throw something together before college starts up next week.

By the end of the day, everyone knew that Andrew Minyard, local weirdo, had asked Neil Hatford, captain of the varsity Exy team, to the winter formal, and that Neil had said yes. 

Neil, however, had no clue. 

Here was how it all started:

December had hit Palmetto High School like a truck, and winter fever was in full force. Along with the first sprinkling of snow across South Carolina, there was a frantic fumble to find a date for the holidays. Most people were successful in finding a date, so the hallways quickly became flooded with awkward hand holding and uncomfortable PDA. 

Andrew, however, was not successful at all. 

Which sucked, because even his brother had found a date with Katelyn (Andrew still wasn’t completely sure that it wasn’t a hoax). And a few weeks ago, the annual winter formal had been announced over the loudspeakers. Now, tickets were almost completely sold out, which meant that the leadership committee was making daily announcements about how it was important to buy them before they ran out. By Friday morning, Andrew was so annoyed at the constant reminder that he was single and depressed that he was genuinely considering dropping out of high school. 

The bell exploded Friday lunch into action, and Andrew headed straight towards his usual lunch table. There was a dry, chalky taste in his mouth that had come from too little sleep and too much studying, perks of taking AP classes, and all Andrew really wanted to do was head home and escape the cold. Unfortunately, there were still two classes left in the day, and they were Andrew’s least favorite, stuck with his least favorite people. 

Andrew slid into his usual spot in the quad, across from Kevin, and made a frustrated noise. Aaron, who followed after him, snorted. 

“Rough day?” he gloated, still very smug that he had a date before Andrew.

“Shut up,” Andrew grumbled. 

Just then, Neil Hatford exited the cafeteria and headed directly towards him. “Andrew, hey. How are you?”

Andrew looked around to see Neil and froze very lightly, just for a second. 

See, once upon a time, Neil and Andrew had been best friends in kindergarten, back when being best friends was as easy as sitting next to each other on the playground. For almost six years, they had been inseparable. They stood up for each other, watched movies together, and every lunch Andrew would trade his baby carrots for Neil’s chocolate milk. They had pathetic elementary crushes together and made fun of Kevin together, did little league Exy together (more on Neil’s part- Andrew had never really cared much for it), and so much more. 

He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened that made them not be friends anymore. It just sort of- happened. One day, they were best friends on the last day of fifth grade, ready to start middle school together. And the next day, Neil was sitting with Dan and Matt and Jeremy and Jean, popular and talented, while Andrew stayed with Aaron and Kevin, lame and sad until the end of time. 

It wasn’t like they never talked anymore. They just were never quite as close as they were when they were kids. But over the last two years of high school, Andrew had basically crashed into a massive crush on Neil. He could never get enough of him. But because nothing in Andrew’s life would ever work out nicely, any time Neil talked to him, Andrew basically spiraled into gay panic. Cue:

“I’m good. Fine. Great. You?”

Aaron elbowed Kevin sharply in the side. Andrew scowled in their direction. 

“I’m fine.” Neil said absently. “Honestly, I’m a little stressed. Coach wants us practicing over break so  _ someone- _ ” he glared at Kevin- “Keeps bothering me about that.” 

Kevin shrugged unapologetically. Andrew’s ears turned red.

“Anyway,” Neil sighed. “I know we have our chemistry final in a few days, so I was wondering if you wanted to come with me to Sweeties and we can study there?”

This time, Aaron kicked Andrew under the table in the shin,  _ hard.  _ Andrew coughed, and hopefully stuttered something out like, “Sure, Neil! Sounds great!”

Neil grinned. “Alright.” He gave a cursory wave to Aaron and Kevin. “Does seven tonight work?”

“Yeah, sure.” Andrew tried to act nonchalant, but judging by the look on Aaron’s face, he didn’t really pull it off. “Okay.”

“Neil!” someone shouted from across the quad. “What’s taking you so long?”

Neil grimaced. “I’ll get going. Andrew-”

“I’ll pick you up,” Andrew said, face probably bright pink. “Seven.”

Neil smiled, which made Andrew’s heart do unsteady flips in his chest, and headed off. 

Andrew watched him go, forlorn, for probably a few seconds too long to be normal, and then turned back to the table. Kevin was staring at him, jaw down, and Aaron gave him a dismal look before flopping down on the table with his head in his arms.

“What?” Andrew demanded. “That went fine.”  _ Right?  _ He reassured himself. He said words that made sense. He acted completely normally. Right? That was fine, right? 

“Did I just hallucinate?” Aaron said, muffled through his arms. “Kevin, did you see that too?”

Kevin pointedly did not respond.

“Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on?” Andrew snapped. 

Aaron rolled his eyes. “Neil Hatford basically asked you out on a date,” he hissed. 

“Wait,” Andrew said, going lobster red. “Is that-?”

Kevin groaned. “You’re going to a restaurant together, and you’re picking him up. Just you two.”

“So?” Andrew argued. “We’re only studying.” 

“When will you finally admit that you have a massive crush on him and ask him out yourself?” Aaron said, overwhelmingly frustrated. “You guys are like middle schoolers.” 

“I would,” Andrew sighed. “But it’s useless. Someone’s probably already asked him out and I’ll just publicly embarrass myself if I do.”

“No one’s asked him out already,” Aaron pointed out. “The whole school would know.”

“Okay,” Andrew said hopefully. “If no one else has, then maybe-”

“Jean is going to ask him out,” Kevin said.

“What?” Andrew demanded. “Excuse me?”

Kevin frowned. “He told me yesterday. At Exy.” When Andrew continued to stare at him, Kevin sighed, exasperated. “Of course someone else is going to want to take Neil to formal.”

Jean Moreau was the starting backliner on the Exy team and was already recruited to one of the top college Exy teams. He was popular and talented and smart and worst of all, he spoke perfect French. Almost every girl had wanted to date him at some point. Learning that Jean was into Neil was probably the worst possible thing to hear. 

“What am I going to do?” Andrew said despairingly. “There’s no way Neil would ever pick me over him.”

Kevin shrugged. “Well, maybe you could ask him first.”

Andrew scoffed. “Absolutely not.” Then, on a whim, “What if  _ Aaron-” _

“No.”

“Okay,” Andrew muttered. “Worth a shot.” 

There was a moment of awkward silence that stretched over them. Andrew looked briefly across the quad to see Neil, sitting on top of the lunch table, laughing at a joke Jean had just said, looking extremely bright and happy over there at the  _ popular  _ kids' table with all of his happy, popular Exy friends. 

Aaron was definitely wrong. Neil would never ask him out. Nobody would want to ask him out.

“You know what,” Andrew said suddenly, fighting back his negative thoughts, “I have English with Jean in fourth period. Maybe I’ll just talk to him them.”

“Right,” Aaron said skeptically. “Like Jean would ever,  _ ever _ admit that he has a crush on Neil.”

-

“Yeah, I have a crush on him,” Jean said sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. “I’m going to ask him to the winter formal next week.”

Huh. That certainly threw a wrench into his not-plans. 

Suddenly, an idea hit him like a strike of lightning. “Well,” he said, after taking no time to consider whether it would be a good idea or not, “I wouldn’t ask Neil.”

Jean frowned. “Why?”

“Um, probably because, I already asked him.”

Jean stared back, befuddled. “You what?”

“And he said yes.” Andrew proclaimed. “So I wouldn’t ask him. Because it would just be embarrassing. For you.”

“Oh,” Jean said. Andrew was extremely pleased to note that he looked disappointed. “Okay. Well. Have fun.”

“Mhm,” Andrew helpfully supplied, trying very hard not to feel smug. “We will.” 

Crisis: averted. Jean was no longer going to ask Neil out, which meant that all Andrew had to do now was-

Wait a minute.

_ Fuck. _

-

“So now, the entire school knows. And I have to actually ask him out,” Andrew complained. “You know I’m terrible at talking about my feelings. How am I supposed to ask Neil out?”

Nicky, who was sitting at the foot of Andrew’s bed, nodded placatingly. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

Aaron, who had inconveniently arrived at the doorway, laughed unkindly. “So, to sum it all up: you freaked out when you found out that Jean was going to ask Neil out, so you lied to Jean, breaking his heart, who in turn tells the whole school that you and Neil are dating-”

“We’re not  _ dating-” _

“Neil doesn’t know any of this, and now you have to ask Neil out.” 

Andrew nodded. “That pretty much sums it up.”

“Well,” cheered Nicky, “You know what to do now!”

“Yeah,” Andrew sighed. “Buy a new name and flee the country.”

“No.” Nicky insisted. “You’re seeing him at seven, right? Ask him then.”

“We’ll be studying.”

Nicky gave Andrew such a disapproving look that it basically scalded Andrew’s eyebrows right off. In response, Andrew scowled and crossed his arms petulantly. 

“Fine. But,” he added, “If we ever go to the winter formal,  _ if,  _ you don’t get to take any pictures. None at all.” Nicky pouted, and Andrew conceded, “One picture.” 

“Okay.” Nicky’s smile broadened. “Now go get your mans. You’ll be late.” 

-

So far, the night was going smoothly. Incredible, actually. 

He had picked Neil up from his house at seven, to the obvious disapproval of his Uncle Stuart, standing outside the door. Neil lugged his entire backpack into the car, probably stuffed with earlier chemistry exams, and slid into the passenger seat. 

Then they arrived at Sweeties. Andrew, thankfully, had the forethought to make a reservation, because despite the diner being far off the highway and only visited by locals, it was always busy on a Friday night. Andrew and Neil had scored seats in the back booth, sitting across from each other, with chemistry papers sprawled out across the sticky table. Andrew pulled out his periodic table and tried hard not to panic. He really only had to say nine words. He had said a lot more than nine words in his life. 

_ Will. You. Go. To. The. Winter. Formal. With. Me. _

Nine words. 

Neil looked up at him from across the table and smiled. Andrew felt his heart skip a beat and tried his best to return a haphazard one. 

They were well over an hour into debating whether it was more important to focus on acids versus bases or metallic versus ionic bonding (Neil was very staunchly the former, while Andrew was insistent on the latter) when Neil stopped short, and said, “Do you think maybe we should order something?”

And five minutes later, their orders were in the kitchen and Andrew finally sucked up his courage and decided to just fucking ask Neil to the formal already. 

“I have a question,” he started. He could already feel his face going red. 

“Acids and bases are more important.” Neil protested. “That’s facts.”

His heart really was going way too fast. “No, I wanted to-

“And here you boys go!” The waitress showed up, toting a tray with one ice cream special, a mound of moose tracks topped with everything imaginable, and a sad little scoop of raspberry sorbet. “Enjoy your ice cream.” 

“Thanks,” Neil said. Andrew dipped a spoon into the peak of the whipped cream and tried to emulate Neil’s easy charm. Once the waitress had gone, Neil turned back to Andrew. “What was that?”

“I wanted to ask if you-”

“Sorry, boys,” the waitress said cheerfully, bursting right back into their conversation. “Just thought you might want some napkins.” 

Neil gave her a much tighter smile. “Thanks. I think we’re good from here.” 

“Sure thing.” She smiled. “Have a great evening.” 

Andrew released a long, slow breath. Neil turned his full attention back on him. His eyes were so, so blue. 

“Willyougotothewinterformalwithme?” Andrew burst out. Neil stared back, head tilted to one side.

“What?”

Andrew took a deep breath. “Will you go to the winter formal with me?”

“The winter formal?” 

Andrew’s eyes widened minutely.  _ Fuck.  _ Had he completely misjudged the situation?

“Sorry,” Andrew fumbled, “I didn’t- it’s fine if you don’t- I get it-”

“Stop,” Neil interrupted. “You don’t have to apologize.”

Andrew decided it was time to begin packing up their papers. It was absolutely fine that Neil said no. He was used to rejection. 

And then, out of the blue, Neil said, “Of course I’ll go with you.”

Andrew froze, completely bemused. “Actually?”

Neil shook his head, astonished. “Andrew, I’ve been trying to flirt with you for months.” Sheepishly, he looked down at the scattered papers. “I'm terrible at it. I probably should have asked you first but I really didn’t want to be wrong, so.” 

“Didn’t want to be wrong?” 

“Yeah, it’s embarrassing to be the guy who gets rejected, right? Matt would have teased me about it until the end of time.” 

“Oh.” Andrew still couldn’t reconcile his version of Neil, the one who would definitely reject him, with the Neil sitting right across him, who had apparently been flirting with him for  _ months.  _ “So we’re actually going to the winter formal.”

“Oh my god,” Neil laughed. “We’re going to the winter formal.” Eyes shining, he looked up and met Andrew’s eyes. 

And then Andrew was leaning across the table, and Neil was matching him, and all of a sudden they were kissing. 

Something inside of Andrew that had been churning for years finally settled. 

Neil tasted like the raspberry sorbet he had been eating and felt like summertime beneath his fingers, and Neil felt like coming back home to a very, very old friend. Which in part, Andrew supposed was true. 

Andrew broke off the kiss to breathe for a second and dragged his eyes away from Neil’s very flushed face and very red lips. He could feel himself smiling and didn’t try to hide it. 

A loud beep, followed by many other loud beeps, suddenly broke the comfortable space between them, and Neil fumbled for his backpack. 

“Hang on,” he said, unzipping at least twelve different pockets looking for something, “Sorry, someone’s calling me- oh, it’s Dan. Hi, Dan!”

Even from across the booth, Andrew could hear Dan shout, very loudly,  _ You’re dating Andrew Minyard!? _

Uh oh.

“How do you even know?” Neil laughed. “He just asked me like five minutes ago- what?” 

Andrew had maybe just a bit of explaining to do. 

**Author's Note:**

> headcanon that andrew volunteers after school to help kids in need instead of exy (sorry kevin!)  
> please leave kudos or a comment if you enjoyed! i love feedback and crave validation!


End file.
